1. Technical Field
One or more embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a method of driving a display apparatus, and a display apparatus and a timing controller for performing the method. More particularly, one or more embodiments of the present invention relate to a method of driving a display apparatus having a plurality of light-emitting blocks so as to individually drive the plurality of light-emitting blocks, and a display apparatus and a timing controller for performing the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a flat panel display apparatus such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus includes an LCD panel displaying an image using a light transmittance property of liquid crystal, and a backlight assembly disposed below the LCD panel to provide light to the LCD panel.
The LCD panel typically includes an array substrate having a plurality of pixel electrodes and a plurality of thin-film transistors (TFTs) electrically connected to the pixel electrodes, a color filter substrate having a common electrode and color filters, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the array substrate and the color filter substrate.
The arrangement of the liquid crystal layer is changed by an electric field formed between the pixel electrodes and the common electrode, thereby changing the transmittance of light through the liquid crystal layer. Here, when the light transmittance is increased to a maximum, the LCD panel may display a white image with high luminance, and when the light transmittance is decreased to a minimum, the LCD panel may display a black image with low luminance.
However, as it is generally difficult for the liquid crystal layer to be perfectly arranged in a certain direction in the LCD panel, light leakage may be generated when the light transmittance is low such as an image with a low grayscale value. Therefore, it is difficult for the LCD panel to display a perfectly black image at the low grayscale value, thus decreasing the contrast ratio (CR) of an image displayed on the LCD panel.
Recently, a local dimming method has been developed that includes dividing a light source into a plurality of light-emitting blocks and controlling a luminance for each of the light-emitting blocks to drive the LCD panel, in order to prevent the CR of the image from decreasing and to minimize power consumption.
However, to control the luminance for each of the light-emitting blocks according to the image displayed on the LCD panel, information referring to the image signal displayed on the LCD panel and control signals for driving the light-emitting blocks to the backlight assembly have to be separately provided, increasing the manufacturing cost of the display apparatus.